NMCA Flowmaster Drag Racing Event - Fastlanta

NMCA Flowmaster Drag Racing invades Atlanta Dragway with fast times and close action

Last year the NMCA Flowmaster traveling tour of street freaks made a return to Atlanta Dragway, located approximately 60 miles north of Atlanta in the quaint town of Commerce, Georgia. The action was dramatic; cars burst into flames and crashed into walls. Those vehicles that remained unscathed ran quick times, thanks to the excellent weather and track conditions. This year, the NMCA event was every bit as exciting, but thankfully the heart-breaking accidents were kept to a bare minimum, with some fender benders here and there, but nothing that made you shake your head in despair. The 2012 running of the Nitto All-Star Nationals was all about racing, and we packed up a few cameras and loaded up on sunscreen to cover it all.

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The star of the show was the Mickey Thompson Super Street 10.5 category, which attracted 16 cars that came packing 10.5W tires and mid 6-second times. The class is called Outlaw 10.5 in other racing circles, and the NMCA officials dubbed it Super Street 10.5 due to its roots and the fact that the powerplants feature some restrictions when compared to the wide-open rules format of traditional Outlaw 10.5 competition. The somewhat-loose set of rules to govern engine sizes and turbocharger dimensions helps create parity amongst the different power adders. Despite perceptions, the racers are serious players, with the top spot being nailed by Mike Murillo who had run 6.49 at 232 mph. No worries, the vast majority of the category is powered by Chevy engines—second in qualifying was Eric LaFerriere driving the world famous ’80 Malibu belonging to Jason Carter. The ’Bu unleashed the fury by stopping the clocks in just 6.54 seconds at a terminal speed of 231 mph. Top speed in the full field was a nasty 234 mph that was put up by Willard Kinzer and his big-block, Chevy-powered Mustang.

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Michael Fratena ran his turbocharged third-gen Camaro in 275 Drag Radial and ran a career best of 7.71 at 186 mph during qualifying. He went all the way to the semifinals before losing to eventual class winner Jason Lee.

The excitement didn’t end there on the track; we watched Pro Street cars shoot for the 5s with speeds in excess of 240 mph as well as the unique full-bodied muscle cars slug it out at 190 mph in one of our favorite categories—Nostalgia Pro Street. The action flowed down through the other heads-up ranks and over into the Index categories—one for late-model cars and another just for ’70s-and-older muscle cars. The NMCA Flowmaster series also caters to the Nostalgia Super Stockers that are certainly a throwback to the earlier years of drag racing. Throw in a car show, manufacturer midway, a few Jet cars, and you had enough stuff to keep busy for a few days. CHP

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NMCA Flowmaster Drag Racing Event - Fastlanta

Nostalgia Pro Street racer Kevin Parent calls his car “Old School” given the category’s throwback to the earlier years of Pro Street racing with more conventional-type engines rather than Pro Modified takeoff parts. It also refers to his chassis construction being a little simpler than some other competitors in the class. Parent took the NPS victory and set the standard with a 7.28 at 190 mph.

Nostalgia Pro Street racer Kevin Parent calls his car “Old School” given the category’s throwback to the earlier years of Pro Street racing with more conventional-type engines rather than Pro Modified takeoff parts. It also refers to his chassis construction being a little simpler than some other competitors in the class. Parent took the NPS victory and set the standard with a 7.28 at 190 mph.

Michael Fratena ran his turbocharged third-gen Camaro in 275 Drag Radial and ran a career best of 7.71 at 186 mph during qualifying. He went all the way to the semifinals before losing to eventual class winner Jason Lee.

Bill Lutz went for a wild ride in his turbocharged Pro Street machine when excessive oil pressure split open the dry-sump tank and dumped its contents under the front wheels. An experienced driver and some good luck prevented the Garrett Turbo–sponsored ride from hitting the wall.

The two quickest Pro Street cars of the weekend met up in the finals. Chris Rini in the near lane packs an 825ci engine with four stages of NOS nitrous, while the Pontiac GTO in the far lane has the smallest engine in the class—427 ci of small-block Chevy from Duttweiler. Rini won this round as Jim Hairston had a broken race car after his car went off track a round earlier. The team simply took the green and watched Rini take the win.

The biggest engine in Pro Street competition belongs to the Keen Brothers, with Jimmy Keen behind the wheel of the family’s ’63 Corvette replica. The Reher-Morrison engine packs 854 ci with four stages of Speedtech nitrous and Keen drove it to a best of 6.18 at 229 mph in his semifinal’s loss to Hairston, who had gone quicker with a 6.06 at 245 mph.

Don Baskin’s ’67 Nova was the lone Chevy entry in the Pro Stock category, where the Fords dominate the naturally aspirated category. Baskin ran 8.48 at 156 mph to take out Robbie Blankenship who had run a quicker 8.47 but lit the dreaded red light, giving Baskin the automatic win.

Kevin Scott and his ’65 Nova whoa’d the crowd with its outstanding looks. The team entered the event to have some fun and ran in Super Street 10.5s, as they rolled to nearly 190 mph on smallish 29.5x10.5 tires. The turbocharged small-block is from Pro Line Racing Engines and ran a best of 7.69 at 186. The back window blew out, preventing us from doing a feature on the car. We are going to catch up with him later in the year so keep your eyes on CHP for an in-depth story.

Jeff Lutz, no relation to fellow Pro Streeter Bill Lutz, brought out his brand-new ’69 Camaro Pro Modified car to the Pro Street ranks. The car shows promise as his company, Lutz Race Cars, and tuning company, PTP, worked hard to get the kinks out of the Pat Musi–built 540ci turbo engine. Lutz promised us that it would run in the 5s at over 250 mph.

You can see some tire smoke coming from the backside of the slicks on Mark Wells’ ’02 Camaro. The yellow F-body has a 540ci engine stuffed under the hood and is pumped up with a pair of turbochargers. He ran low 7s in Super Street competition.

Bob Curran, the mayor of Xtreme Street competition, had his famed Corvette back on track. A new AES-built 365ci engine sits in the framerails with a Vortech Xi-trim supercharger pumping it up. He ran 7.90s at 176 mph and went red in the quarter-finals of the class.

Jimmy Keen lets the clutch out on the Keen Brothers’ ’63 Corvette, en route to a best of 6.18 at 229 mph. The nitrous-gulping Vette runs wild in the Pro Street ranks.

Dave Beeson is the wild man of Nostalgia Pro Street with his disco-era Camaro. Big wheelies and 7.30s were the order of the day for the heavyweight contender. Beeson runs a Dart-headed 638ci engine with a single fogger nitrous system to motivate his 3,200-pound missile.

David Rickey ran his 12-second Camaro in EFI-F index ranks where he would outlast the field of late-model EFI vehicles to make the finals and face his brother, Tim Rickey. Tim races an ’08 Mustang, adding more drama to the sibling rivalry. The Mustang got the best of the Camaro, but the two Ohio racers promise the battle isn’t over yet. There are five more NMCA races for them to compete against each other.

Jason Carter brought his world-famous ’80 Malibu to Super Street 10.5 competition, and he has Eric LaFerriere of DMC Racing driving with Mark Micke of M&M Racing Transmissions tuning. The ’Bu unleashed a scorching 6.54 at 230 mph and was runner-up in Super Street.

Steve George had crew chief Ed Briggs add a massive 822ci engine from Steve Schmidt Racing Engines this winter to the team’s ’08 Corvette. They also added four stages of nitrous from Induction Solutions. George competes in Super Street 10.5 and the 6.90s at 205 mph only hinted at the capabilities of the new Pro Mod–style engine. They are looking to go mid 6s once they get all four nitrous systems activated, which at that point the engine will crank out 2,100 hp and making their goals realistic.

Open Comp is sort of an index/bracket racing mixture where racers compete on a pro Tree and establish a non-adjustable index for eliminations. John Norris defended the Bow Tie honor with his ’86 Camaro by taking down the ’88 Mustang driven by William Smith. Norris ran 11.61 on his 11.58 index as Smith knocked off a 10.15 on a 10.10 index.

It was Chevy versus Ford in Nostalgia Muscle Car; the Malibu wagon of Jacob Weigl squared off against the ’68 Mustang of Bryan Parker. The Mustang won this meeting—Weigl broke out with a 10.96 on an 11.00 index to Parker’s 12.03 on a 12.00 index.

Take an ’02 Camaro, add the required safety and suspension upgrades, stuff a conventional-headed 525ci big-block engine into it, add a single stage of nitrous oxide to jump the power to around 1,400 or so, and try to hook it on true 10.5-inch slicks with no wheelie bars. That is the CliffsNotes version of David Hutnick’s Xtreme Street ride. It ran a best of 7.98 at 175 mph.

Don Baskin debuted the family’s ’10 Camaro last year in Nostalgia Pro Street. The category might be called Nostalgia, but it actually refers to the earlier years of Pro Street competition before it was taken over by Pro Modified entries. NMCA keeps a strict set of rules to ensure the vehicles that run in the class are real cars instead of thinly disguised Pro-level rides.

Read all about the NMCA Xtreme Street Drag Racing event and all the blazing fast rides that competed. Only at www.chevyhiperformance.com, the official site for Chevy High Performance Magazine! » Read More